John Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor, said in an interview Tuesday that it is a “disgrace” that a dyed-in-the-wool Christian Zionist like Mike Huckabee is the U.S. ambassador to Israel after the Baptist pastor said it would be “fine” if Israel steals more land in the Middle East, based on Biblical text.
Huckabee, an evangelical extremist, was asked by Tucker Carlson about the Bible’s Genesis 15, which The New York Times noted included God promising the descendants of Abraham “the lands from Egypt to the Euphrates River, in modern-day Iraq.”
Huckabee was asked if he agreed that the Israelis have a right to the land, and he responded that he would be “fine if they took it all.”
Huckabee told Carlson that Tel Aviv is not interested in claiming the land.
“They don’t want to take it over, they’re not asking to take it over,” he said.
Al Jazeera noted that Huckabee spent much of the interview referring to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria” and justifying the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Huckabee is a staunch supporter of all things Israel and has defended Tel Aviv’s land grab in the past. He said in previous interviews that Israel may be occupying the territory, but “it is an occupation of land that God gave them 3,500 years ago.”
Mearsheimer said it is hardly surprising that Huckabee believes Israel should own most of the territory in the Middle East, “but actually saying that when you are representing the Trump administration, when you are the U.S. ambassador to Israel, is quite remarkable.”
“Look, it’s a disgrace that this man is the U.S. ambassador to Israel, just like it’s a disgrace that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are the two principal diplomats dealing with Middle East issues,” he told Judge Andrew Napolitano’s Judging Freedom. “We should have people in those positions you have no attachment to Israel. The United States of America should have America-First people in those positions, and it does not.”
Hellbound and Down 